Baowolf's Mentor Group- Closed (Page 17)

Good afternoon everyone! I'm very happy to be on my days off and get in some training. Today was a pretty good workout day especially after I had a disappointing event happen just prior to my workout. I have a friend who passed away from a rare cancer at the age of 37; leaving behind a wife and 2 girls. I did some research and decided to have a t-shirt made up for my friend. The front was a ChipStrong emblem that was created by his brother fire fighters and the back was supposed to say In memory of Paul Chippendale...with a cross and the motto "nobody fights alone"...this is also on the livestrong bracelet I have for my friend. Well, in my email I left off the N in his last name so I noticed the shirt was wrong when I picked it up. The long and short of it is that I was basically told to eat it. Well, the Lord is in my life for many reasons and one of them is to deal with my temper...it can get pretty bad. I kept it in check but there are only a handful of times that I've been that angry in the last few years. Mad at myself, the company, everyone!

That leads to the workout. Now, for those who lift weights...there is very little that is better than a ticked off attitude when pumping iron. I was full of it and my workout was great. I killed myself and got out all of my frustration. I did 45m on the elliptical followed by 2K yards in the pool. The swim was unique...I ended up sharing a lane with a college level swimmer who was pretty close to doing 50y to my 25y! I jokingly told her during a break that if I knew she was that fast I would've told her I wouldn't have shared the lane!! The day was complete when I spoke with the girl after her workout and I got the pity line "2K yards is a good workout for anyone" I believe she had good intentions but I felt patronized...maybe some of that was due to my state of mind...maybe some ego involved too.

Other than that, the rest of the day has been fine. Today is my birthday so I got some nice workout shorts from my daughter, a golf shirt from my son, and some lock laces. After my daugthers girl scout meetings...I'll be off my diet with ice cream cake and my favorite meal lasagna!!

Mike: I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your friend. As you read above, I had a similar experience around the New Year. I pray that God blesses that family with love and suppor during their difficult time. I'm also excited for you and the race on Saturday!!!

Elena: Nice score on the trainer!! I totally relate to the sabotage thing; I've been having issues staying on my diet lately due to the hours I'm working. I have a bad habit of eating when I get home at midnight because my body is a mess from a double! Try your best to put your setbacks behind you and move forward with good habits!

Courtney: Thanks for asking about my wife. She's pretty certain she has a bone chip in her ankle. She should get it casted but with the summer coming...she's going to wrap it and try to stay off of it. I can't blame her for that....I just hope she's careful when I'm not home.

Mitch: Good to see you again. I hope work slows down for you soon. It sounds like we're in similar spots workwise right now.

Mitzi: Keep trucking along with the training and do the best you can. Race day is what it is; try to enjoy it and take some lessons from training to improve going forward.

Samantha: I'm very happy to hear that knee is getting better for you!! I'm super excited for you too....2 weeks away...WOW!! You are going to become an Ironman soon...so happy and a little envious!

Carol: I'm very happy to hear you talking about signing up for races! It sounds like your glute is getting better. Don't forget about getting in some running for you friend after you heal up

Steve: I forgot to comment about the scholarship thing but that just sucks. When I hear things like that I can't help but wonder where the disconnect happens that allows this crap to happen. Most parents try to teach right/wrong, fair/unfair, etc why does that disappear from so many people when they become adults?

Hope you all have a good night. If all goes well, I should be reporting I'm cleared to run and doing a long bike ride tomorrow!

Happy Birthday, Jay!

Samantha, its next week, right? You will be great!

Hope everyoen else is having a great week.

I'm feeling good this AM, and getting mentally ready for Saturday. Did my last swim earlier, an easy 1500 which was a straight 1000 then some shorter stuff. Tomorrow AM will be a short bike spin/short run brick, then thats it. Th PM/Friday will be pack, travel, register, etc in prep for Sat AM.

Weather looks good, and I think my attitude for the race will be one of enjoying the moment, and make it fun, even at mile 9 of the run

Hey Jay, happy-day-after-birthday! Nice gifts from your kiddos...they know what you like. Funny how sometimes your mood can impact your thoughts, and even though you know that is what it happening...well it still just does.

Mike, very happy for you that your race is only a couple of days away. You sound very ready to embrace every moment of it!

Plotting a swim at lunch. The pool is only available for a short time for lap swim. Even working from home and setting my own schedule, it always seems to be a struggle to not let other things interfere with that. Dryer repair guy is finally here, and he needs to fix it and be gone so I can make my "appointment"!

Carol - Love hearing about all the plotting going on in your life - swimming, racing, etc. I think working from home would make having a schedule harder bceause no one is telling you when to work or when to go home.

Jay - Happy birthday! How are you liking the laces? Have you been cleared by PT yet? I wish anger motivated me to work out because your session was awesome. Bummer about the shirt and major bummer about the attitude of the seller.

Mike - Woohoo for you! What's your race number? Yes, my race is weekend after yours.

I'm gonna take one more day off and run some much needed errands. the knee is so much painful as it is achy. I'm struggling to know when is a good time to get moving again. I'm gonna pick my bike up today, IM race ready , and tomorrow I'll see how it goes on the trainer. Friday I'd like to join a local group for an OWS. Race day is fast approaching, 11 days. Excitement is starting to be mixed with nervousness more now.

Packet pickup is Friday afternoon. I'll know then, and post it. Not sure if there is any on-line timing available.

Steve: thx. Will try to move censor to back tire to get all the bike info. Currently cadence info won't hold- computer goes to sleep mode. And yeah, I wiping down tire is something I would have never of done. Wondered why the cylinder had a "track" in the center of it.

Jay: Happy Birthday!! I love celebrating bdays especially when they aren't my own!

Mike: whooooo!! It's almost time ! Have your checklist ready??

Carol: how'd the "appt" go?!

Got a swim, bike, & run in yesterday. All short but I'm feeling better. Amazing how stiff the body get when you go a few days without working out. So i will be stretching everyday. Swims Are working out best since I've changed membership to inc family. Kids Are having fun while I get my swim on. I won't even go into what happened on my short run Yesterday. All I can say is people are messed-up.

Made it and got my swim on . A bit rock like today with a few foot cramps thrown in, but got it done. Great news on you being able to swim while your kids play!

Samantha, hope the knee continues to progress, and that you make YOUR OWS "appointment" on Friday!

Good afternoon everyone! Today didn't quite go as I expected but that's life. I must go to a decent doctor because everytime I go there...they're at least 30 minutes behind and nobody complains. I didn't get clearance from working light duty; doctor is worried about me rolling around with an inmate and re-injuring. I get it I guess. I did get clearance to begin a run/walk program (if I had Carol's posting skills...I'd put a line through the WALK part of that!) Unfortunately, the delay caused me to miss my bike ride (again)...the good news is that I'm clear on both days off now until August 7th.

My workout was pretty fast because the kids had a half day and my wife has a doctors appt. I ended up running a 5K on the treadmill with no issues. I'd by lying if I didn't say I feel my achilles but it never hurt. My pace ended up being 9:30...all things considered...I'll take it. After that, I quickly went into the pool and did about 200 yards worth of sprints. I wanted to do 400 but time and listening to my body caused me to shorten. I need to learn how to swim faster without losing all of my technique...I'm hoping that'll come with time.

My goals are to do a sprint in late August, oly in early September, and a mary in October in memory of my friend that I mentioned yesterday. Now that I did a 5K, I'll sign up for the sprint. Hopefully that race Mike gave to me doesn't fill up before I can run a 10K. I am a very happy and motivated person right now. I just need to get through the next month or so with work and then I can buckle down with training.

FYI Samantha, I ran with the elastic laces today and I loved them. Being a cheapskate, I've put on the laces in such a way that I can take them off and put them on another pair of running shoes in the future

Hope everyone has a good afternoon!

Hi Everybody - I got out for a nice 5 mile run at lunch time. Much better than yesterday's slog through the humidity! I'll have to switch to running early pretty soon because even today at only ~70 F it was getting kind of warm!

I didn't think I was going to end up doing a tri this year, but my sister wants to do one as a relay so I think we're going to do Steelman (sprint - my sister and I were game for the Olympic, but the runner said no) in August. My brother-in-law is going to run and then I guess my sister and I will draw straws to see who does what. She's a better swimmer than I am, but it's probably a toss up as to who is the better biker. I think I'd rather swim but I'm letting her decide since she's new to this.

Jay: Happy Birthday!

Mike: Glad to hear the forecast is cooperating for your race!

Elena: That really was a great deal on that trainer!

Samantha: I don't even know you very well and I'm excited for you. Keep the posts coming and rest that knee!

Carol: Good for you getting your swim in.

Have a good rest of the day everybody!

So today I decided to start building my 800 repeat times, so here is the first set 800s: 6:54, 6:59, 6:57 mpm pace with .25 mile recovery jogs. I was pretty happy to be below 7 mpm, but it took quite a bit of concentration to maintain that speed. Next week will be 4x800s. So for tonight I stil have a 15 mile bike and 1900 yard swim. I am hoping to actually be able to race the IM, but I have been sooo tired in my workouts, we shall see.

Samantha, if the trainer goes ok for the bike you can try some short walks (1 mile ish for the first day) on a flat course. Hope that thing starts to clear up in the next week, am hoping it is one of those 2 week tweaks not something more involved.

Mike, enjoy the catered workout, er race.

Elena is your speedometer wired or wireless? If wired you would wrap your wire down the slanted bottom tube on your bike and then along the support bar that is parallel to the ground and on the oposite side from your chain so it can pickup the magnet off the spoke over on the left side. If wirless ya just remove it and put it on the back. You may need to pick up some zip ties to refasten it if you have to cut the exisiting ones.

Edited by Baowolf 2013-06-12 3:40 PM

Steve - I think I am officially over the idea that I'll have a faster IM than you. So much for a slow build up of you. So impressed with this whole healing thing going on with you and all the training you are getting in now. So do you thinK I should attach balloons or bright colored ribbon or some such thing to my transition bags to make them stand out more?

Jay - Glad you love the laces. The kind I use are called Yankz and I love them. They actually aren't designed to be permanent so I can put them on any shoe I want and that's good because I'm also a cheapskate. You may not be envious for long cause one of these days you will be where I am if you want to be!

Courtney - thank you for sharing in my excitement. Good job on your training too.

Mike - I am quite excited for you. Only two more days. I love the idea of a catered training day. Oh the value of a life we get to still live today.

Picked the bike up today with the nice new tires on it. Gave her a bit of a bath too. Bike shop kid tried really hard to sell me a pair of $150-$250 Oakley sunglasses today. When I asked him if he still lived at home he said, "yes!". He's a great kid and really just wants me to have the best, but that is an expensive pair of sunglasses. Honestly, I was really tempted but I walked away CAn't really explain how I'm feeling because I'm all over the board. Not sure what to think about my knee. It wasn't as good today as other days. I went downtown to walk around at the farmer's market and, though it didn't hurt, it was mildly uncomfortable. And when I move it certain ways it puts pressure on that 'injury' location and then it does hurt. So I'll continue icing and taking ibuprofen. It causes my heart to go from excited to sad when I think of the possibility of having to drop the race. Then with all the knee challenges aside when I start thinking about the race I get really anxious, then I wonder about the run. I want to trust God no matter what happens, but its hard. So many people are coming and I invested so much into this I can't hardly stand the thought of not doing it. Oh, to be wise. I still have my very excited moments too. I saw the first sign up alerting people that IM is coming and I cheered for joy. This year I will not be the gal standing on the sidelines wishing I were out there like I have done for the past 7 years.

From time-to-time we all have our little rants, so here is mine. Please, whatever you do in your life, do not become grossly over-weight as you age. Clearly we all see the value of health, but let me tell you how incredibly difficult it is to take care of obese people when they are old. I'm actually not bothered about having to take care of them, although I have to intentionally practice good techniques to avoid injury when assisting them, but I really hate their lack of quality living. It really just breaks my heart and I wish there was something I could do about it.

Night

For IM CDA volunteers will likely pick out your bags for you in t1/t2 and special needs if you yell out your number. You can add like rainbow ribbon or something if you want. However, finding your bike may be a different matter. Finding your bike in t1 is always the hardest. Find some kind of landmark or put a balloon or towel on the bar or something. I have a rainbow towel for triathlons.

Samantha I really hope the knee is better by race day. I don't know that it will be but my prayers are with you. If you did have to ditch the race, you are an unofficial ironman in that you have done all the work you need to to complete an ironman. I know it is not the same, but you can get back to this point at any time in the future, and faster if you wanted to. I know it doesn't help, just stay easy on the leg, do not "test it out" in the dumb ways that we tend to. You could always just do the swim and bike and then decide during the run/walk. still some time left to wait and see, wish it were more time. Wish I knew how you hurt it or where exactly.

Did a short, easy brick this AM to keep a bit loose, and with that, I'm closing the book on HIM 'training' for the Saturday race. weather looks good, I'm feeling OK (hammy mostly OK this AM) and it will be a fun day. 2 years ago, I'd have thought it impossible to even consider doing a race like this. Catered training/fun race, whatever you want to call it, I'm as ready as I"m going to be. Truthfully, I'm disappointed with the training I've had this spring for a number of reasons, but I did what I could when I could, and will hit the starting line to see where it takes me. Starting to get some of those early pre-race nerves, but hopefully can keep a lid on it until about 7:19 or so Saturday (my swim wave goes at 7:20 AM Saturday)

Mike - You have shown some grit working through many hurdles and have nothing to regret. You will make it to the starting line and as your comment about 2yrs ago shows this will be another milestone in your Tri career.

Samantha - You have show a lot of determination as well and have the training records to prove it. Sounds like this will be a long two weeks, take it one stroke at a time, one revolution at a time, and one stride at a time. I’d agree with your assessment of getting old and is one of the reasons I am on this journey. I kid my wife that I want to live to 120. She is against it for quality of life reasons but I say if you can maintain that quality then why not.

Jay – I feel the pressures of work and training too. It is tough but not sure what the alternative is.

Carol – Rocks do not swim. Glad you are back in the water even if it is not your thing. At the risk of repeating myself, I find it the most therapeutic activity.

Courtney – That relay race sounds like fun. I’d prefer the swim but the bike is not a bad option.

Steve – I must second the sentiment that your recovery is amazing, and I would add inspiring.

Elena – Happy kids make for a happy mom. Enjoy your training.

Two years ago this activity was the furthest thing from my mind and now there are new time constraint issues. I figure the time constraint issues are better than the extra 30 lbs, boredom, and poor health, no regrets here. Only opportunities! Nice BRICK last night with 6+ mile on the bike followed by 5K run. This was the most realistic brick I’ve run with the shoes and all waiting at the back door and a transition time around 2 minutes. Ok the run pace could be improved ~10:40 but there was no walking. I did feel some cramping (stitches) around the diaphragm for the first 2+ miles which was a big reason for the slow pace. Not sure if I drank too much in between, or just the body getting used to the bounce after a pretty intense bike ride.

Luck on your race Mike, I like your attitude. I am not immune from the emotional rollercoaster of races, injuries and such. It all goes with the teritory. Just let it build and pass through you like a reed in the wind and then come back to your center.

Diet will be out the window with family visiting for my son's graduation. Will restart on Monday.

Small observations. The book I read about swimming included that you make small whirlpools with your swim pull like a paddle going through the water. Your fingers shoudl be mostly down during the pull, you should feel like you are pressing against something with your hands. The stroke starts slower and then builds as it goes, just like a conoe paddle with the strength of your stroke being near your hip. If my hands are in good position it feels like I have baseball mits on and can feel the water around my hands being pushed back. When I try to go too fast and panic my hands lose that feeling and I lose that pressure feeling and the water slides off my hands rather than staying in place to be pushed back. Timingwise your pull starts as your other hand reaches the water. Your body should rotate as if there is a rod going through your head down your spine so that you just rotate without bouncing or moving off that line.

Bike. Most folks have their knees too far appart. Just walk across the room and stop then measure how far your knees are appart. That is how close they should be on the bike. So get on the trainer and measure it again. When pedalling feet shoudl be parallel to the flour, toeing will cause the outside upper part of your calf to get nasty tight. Back is curved with hips rotated down and forward.

In races I try to drink less water that last 10 min before transitioning to the run to avoid that side cramping stuff. Using cold water to try to cool a hot body results in sloshy tummy. Put the water over your head instead 8).

Edited by Baowolf 2013-06-13 10:14 AM

On the train coming home from D.C. Daughter competed in National History Day, and while I think her paper is brilliant, the competition was fierce. We did all have a great time during the events and visiting the city.
Purchased a weeks pass at the facility on the Maryland campus, but without a car and with limited shuttles I got two days of workouts in and then a workout on a recumbent bike at the hotel. Could have been worse.
My race is in over a week, but it is a sprint, so while I'm nervous about how slow I'll be or how much I'll suffer, it'll be OK. Will try to get three more hard days in before three easy days and two days off.

Mike Sam - I'm thinking of you - really looking forward to you getting to that starting line! can't wait to read the reports.
Jay, you sound so upbeat - yea on your healing and starting to run.

Steve - you are a role model for knowing when to take it easy and when to ease back it. Just went back to see what it is you are coming back from. Holy sh*t! You rock. I am so shaky on my bike, afraid of going too fast. I think two crashes would be it for me.

Thanks everyone for your running tips and support.
Mitzi

Edited by MuscleMomma 2013-06-13 10:57 PM

Oh boy, I'm so behind on the posts. We have had major computer issues - first computer, then wireless, then wireless again. I'm sorry but I get short of breathe and enter panic mode when I can't get online for several days,.

Before I get kicked off again, Mike, BEST OF LUCK THIS WEEKEND!!!! You will do great. If there is tracking and if my computer is up, I'll stalk you during the race. You are ready for this. I know that you are concerned about the run but with your swim and bike training, you could walk backwards with your eyes close and have it.

Samantha, glad the knee is better and just baby it til the race and then race day, kick it Girl. I have a theory that the devil throws random pains at us during taper just to mess with our minds. I'm in total agreement with Steve that you should start the race. Swim and then hop on the bike. Go until you KNOW that going any further will hurt it. Don't let the mind wimp out - but if the body isn't there and it will cause damage, live to fight another day. But START. DNF trumps DNS everyday. And I also believe that you are already an IM because you put in the work. I'm so proud of you.

Well the weather realized that it is June in FL and decided to start acting like it. We were having stunning temps until about Tuesday. The last few days have been in the high 90s or we may have hit 100. I'm trying not to pay attn too much and keep moving. I've had 6 straight days of running and some have been better than others. Last night's mind game during the run was: if 2 of the 3 conditions were met (downhill, breeze, shade) than I had to run. I actually ran sometimes when none of the 3 were met. It wasn't fast but faster than I would have thought - if that makes sense. One day at 4:30pm (hottest of the day), I only managed 2.4 miles in the 30 minutes before son's ballgame - and I was thrilled with it. It may not be good but it was better than sitting around and waiting for the ballgame to start.

I haven't been able to bike nor swim because most of my time has been at work or at (or before) son's ballgames. So I've been focusing on running consistently and heat acclimatization (sp?) Now the ballgames are mostly over so I will add back in swimming while striving to keep a good running base. Then hopefully later I can add biking back in. In some ways, it's not exactly where I want to be but in other ways, I'm thrilled beyond words because I feel that I've prioritized properly because I want to focus on son's schedule right now (15 may not be the greatest age but I want to enjoy it as much as possible) while still keeping up activities for my health. I want to add tris - but I don't know when that will happen.

Steve, you amaze me! So funny that you were just trying to survive Tahoe when you started back and now you realize that you may be able to race it. You are an inspiration!

Oh, I've got to add one more thing. (OK, I know ya'll are tired of my diarrhea of the mouth and some of your are going to come sabotage my computer again, right?) I 'bout died laughing when several people (I know Carol and Jay) mentioned being cheap. You are my people! Of course I'd rather say that I'm smart, or frugal, or cost-conscious, or thrifty, or brilliant, or...... Jay, I know exactly what you were saying about the laces and I've done the same thing. I don't cut them to fit the shoes; I tuck the strands so I can put on other shoes. Elena, what a MAJOR score on the trainer. Kudos to you!

Good evening everyone!

Just a quick drive by post before bed. I'll be working at least two doubles this weekend (expecting to be forced on Father's Day too) so I won't be around much.

Mike: I'm sending all of my good vibes your way for the race. I'm anxiously awaiting a great race report when I can finally log on again!!

Two other things:

1. For those with fogless goggles...any company names to consider?

2. Interesting read in the Tri talk section about swimming. Basically, its a conversation of whether you get faster by doing speed work or if you get faster by swimming MORE and getting more efficient. My swim coach believes in the latter...me, I stink too bad to know whats right! If anyone has thoughts, I'd love to read them.

Jay it is all 3. You need to swim enough so that you are physically fit in the swim enough to have the speedwork mean anything. And you need decent enough form or you won't have speed in your speedwork. So swimming 10,000 yards a week doing sets that are faster than comfortable say 10 to 20 x 100 at 5 to 15 seconds faster than your comfortable cruise speed will help. But a coach will help the most....

I have, however swum 30,000 to 40,000 yards a month without getting faster in the swim. It is tricky. I currently like ladders. Warmup 500 yards, then 100s at 2:05, 2:03, 2:01, 1:59, 1:57, 1:55, 153, 152, 1:51, 1:49, 1:47, 1:55, 2:00, 2:05 per 100 yard pace then cool down. If you cant do 100s at the faster pace anymore drop to 50s or even 25s to keep the intensity up. If you are flailing... you need to slow down and regain form.

And thanks for the encouragement guys. My build is faster than I would recommend, but I am doing a strategy of more frequent workouts of shorter distance to spread out the fatigue in any one workout. I still have my long in all 3 events though. The plan is less steep from here on out with modest increases per week, like 10 to 20 mile per week on the bike and 2 miles total per week on the run and like 700 yards per week on the swim over 4 swims.

Edited by Baowolf 2013-06-13 10:43 PM

swimming is all about form & efficiency. You can't go fast without them being consistent. Trying to go fast with a bad stroke with leave you tired and looking for a kayak real quick.

Steve seeing your comeback efforts is fantastic. Glad to see you progressing so quickly.

Can't believe the race is tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to it. It will be a fun day of swimming, biking, and then something akin to running . Getting all packed up and heading to the race for packet pickup later this afternoon.

Mike, wishing you an awesome race tomorrow! I can tell your mind is in a very good place. Good thing is the run is last, so you can just go by how you feel.

Steve, I'll second everyone elses thoughts on being glad your build is going so well. Good reminders on the swim. One related thought. Our swim instructor last year talked about pretending there is an eyeball in the middle of your palm, and making sure that the "eyeball is looking at the wall behind you" fairly early in the stroke. To make that happen, you pretty much have to keep your elbow higher, and be the canoe paddle you mentioned.

Jay, good luck with your two double shifts. Endurance of a different sort!

Pam, nice job dealing with the heat, the ballgames, and life! Why am I not surprised that we are also alike in our thriftiness?

Mitzi, way to go with getting in those workouts while traveling. You are right...you will be fine in the sprint.

Joe, very nice brick! Making the quick transition without it actually being race day is hard, but a very good thing to practice. I agree that the water is indeed therapeutic.

Samantha, thanks for sharing your heart re: the elderly whose weight adds to their health/mobility problems. So hard to change things at that stage of life, so makes me realize how important it is to keep the focus now. I truly admire you for working in that field. As far as I'm concerned, the staff when my FIL resides are angels with the patience of Job. LOL on the sunglasses. Regardless of our thriftiness, I think we all have our "things" that we are willing to throw caution to the wind on. For me it is travel, for you perhaps sunglasses . At the rate I seem to break the cheap ones I buy, I might could acutally afford some good ones. As for your race, I'm praying that you arrive at the starting line just smiling from the inside out, confident that you have done your part, and knowing that the day will unfold exactly as it is supposed to. Did you/are you getting that OWS in today?

Courtney, your relay sounds fun! That might be a good way for my friend and I to do another tri together. She is a stronger cyclist than I am, her hopefully soon to be daughter-in-law is a first rate college swimmer, and when healthy, I would probably be the logical choice for the run leg. Thanks for making me think about that!

My big news is that I just booked a trip! 5 nights in Ruidoso, NM. Belated anniversary trip and a mountain fix! As for workouts, I'm closing in on completing my second week of "do nothing that stresses the glute" and I can say for the first time in a long while that there is no pain at all. So starting Sunday, I'll try adding back in some very short/easy running. Oh, and went with a friend to see "Spirit of the Marathon II". Enjoyed it a lot, so if you get a chance...highly recommend.

Mike, have a fantastic race. Give it your all and have fun!

Samantha, I admire your ability to make good decisions while waiting for that knee to heal. Hard to do. We're all still praying for you.

Steve, I was reading one of your posts re: 800 times. Thought it was for swim. Holy moly, that's a fast swim! haha .. saw later it was for run. I like your strategy.

Run and swim today. Long ride tomorrow. Going to ride with my LBS. Scared. lol. No really, I AM scared. lol. Will let you know how it goes.

Elena, have fun on the LBS ride! I understand your scaredness, but it's a good kind to overcome .

Mike, good luck this weekend. I am sure you are going to do a great job.

Good luck Mike!!